I mostly stick to the portable games in the series. If I ever sit down playing a console game, I almost never choose to play SRW over other games, even as someone who knows about/has watched a good chunk of the series the game often hosts. The reason is because SRW is completely style over substance- it boasts amazing 2D graphics (Whenever they venture into 3D it's laughable) and gameplay that has barely changed for forever, with the exception of NEO, which generated no attention because of the aforementioned laughable 3D graphics. The storyline is a horribly written fan-fiction so the only thing that usually drives me forward is (supposedly) the game itself, and the promise of me seeing my favorite robot show joining my team so I can do the wave. I can only take the game in small chunks, which is why I stick to the portable ones since I can just pull it out on a long train ride or something and play it.

The last console game I bothered playing was @3. One thing I really don't like is that they decided to remove you choosing between multiple original mechs at the start and just forcing you to use whatever original they came up with for that particular game. What happened to that main character customization in 4, F/FF, and alpha? You'd think they would've expanded on that instead of taking steps back with each successive game.

I don't know about you, but even the gameplay doesn't really flex my brain muscles the way other SRPGs do. Granted, that's exactly why I like the games so much, besides the fact that I never get tired of the animations and seeing Giant robots kill eachother. It really is style over substance, but IMO, that's kinda the appeal of the games.

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes

The gameplay being interesting to you has nothing to do with the fact that it has barely changed over the past several games. The biggest selling point is always what new series is featured for a particular game. If it wasn't all about style it wouldn't have attacks lasting a minute and a half where more strategy-heavy games have attacks only last a couple seconds. There's a reason only the handheld titles made it out of Japan despite there being a high-budget, fully-voiced PS2 OG game.

I enjoy watching the crazy animations they manage to make and being able to gawk as units from shows I've watched as anyone else, but purely as a strategy game there's plenty of games I'd take over it. If it wasn't all about style they wouldn't be constantly trying to one-up their Gainax bounces and HOLY SHIT JAM PROJECT HOT BLOOD HIKARI NI NAREEEEEEEEEEEEEE every single game.

Whether the gameplay has barely changed is irrelevant if its engaging.

The biggest selling point is

What new series are they includingWhat sub series is the gameGameplay

Attacks that last a minute and a half are more common in srpgs than you might think. In fire emblem games I turn off the animations

"There's a reason only the handheld titles made it out of Japan despite there being a high-budget, fully-voiced PS2 OG game."

Actually the reason being that the ps2 og game came out too late for any publisher to do anything with, and since the ps2 game is a combination of the 2 gba games it wasnt neccessary ( as wrong as that might be)

It's relevant if we're discussing whether or not it's the damn focus or not. I have plenty of fun with the games, but to say that gameplay advancement is a major thing they focus on is untrue, and NEO not being terribly popular just shows that it really isn't the fanbase's focus either.

And I don't get why you would bring Fire Emblem up when talking about animation length in strategy games, most of the attacks only last a couple seconds. The same is true with advance wars, the good shining force games, Langrisser, and most that I can think of. I can't think of any game more or even equally self-indulgent in visual masturbation than the SRW series aside from SRW-inspired Touhou games or whatever.

There are a few difficult SRWs, for those complaining it's too simple/easy - F/FF, A Portable, and Z Ex-Hard off the top of my head. Keep in mind that almost all SRWs record your turn counts, which serves as a sort of scoring system. The only way to grind is by failing and repeating missions, which tanks your turn count, so the turn count is fairly impervious to grinding. There's still save/load spamming, although in A Portable the RNG is fixed per scenario.

Dammit. Looks like there's no squads or even partners. So much for being able to put together a team of Tesujin 28, Shin Mazinger, and either Aquarion or Big O (whichever comes first) for maximum fist flinging action. And so many people, so few deployment spots. :negative:

That said, hot damn at Busted Exia and Vespa Yoko; I hope we can keep them around for hilarity's sake. Put them into a squad with either Boss Borot, a Scope Dog, or have them hang out with Lulu and....:negative: